Parasitic Infections in Humans

Parasites are one of many broad categories of pathogenic organisms that can cause high morbidity and mortality amongst different populations. The organisms that cause malaria, toxoplasmosis, and leishmania are examples of parasites currently under investigation in VIDD. Molecular diagnostics of infection, infection prevention and vaccine development are the fundamental approaches for ameliorating the burden of these diseases, and VIDD scientists are integrating known diagnostic techniques with novel methodology development to tackle this problem.